Letters

Black politics

Afua Hirsch's article about black (African Caribbean and Asian) representation in parliament was welcome in what has been a very white election campaign (My election, 27 April). She estimated that the current crop of 15 black MPs could rise to a couple of dozen after 6 May. But forgotten was that the historical breakthrough of 1987, when four black MPs were elected after an absence of more than 50 years (communist/Labour Shapurji Saklatvala lost his Battersea seat in 1929), was achieved as a result of the Labour party black sections struggle. In 1988, our members Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz combined forces with Lord Pitt to form the parliamentary black caucus, styled on the US organisation to which Barack Obama was later to belong.

Paul Boateng MP refused to join, helping to trigger its eventual demise. Without a caucus, black MPs are just a bunch of careerist individuals. The statements of black MPs on race issues have been invisible. And on the illegal Iraq war and draconian terrorism laws – with the exception of Abbott – their voting records have badly let down Muslims and black people in general. They should not be surprised if some of them are punished at the ballot box. After the election I hope the new intake will form, once more, a collective voice able to articulate the concerns and aspirations of black communities. They will remain irrelevant to black people's politics if they do not.